10 Years On
by StaceyWacey
Summary: Ten years have past since DG has seen her personal Tin Man. What happened?
1. Chapter 1

The Royal Princess, Dorothy Gayle of the First House of Gale of the Outer Zone was her style. Her family and what few friends she'd earned over the years called her DG. Sadly, those friends were few in number and spaced out all across the realm or just plain gone. It hurt her heart to think of that, of all the faces she'd never see again, of those she missed painfully and wasn't likely to see any time in the foreseeable future.

Raw, the seer, had returned with Kalm to the forests of the east, near the land of the Munchkins and the fields of the Papay soon after the double eclipse that had nearly destroyed their world. Ambrose, or Glitch as he'd been called them, hadn't been the same man once his brain was restored and in it's rightful place in his cranium. Gone was the sweet, if clumsy and forgetful, man who always had a smile, or words of optimism and encouragement. In his place, she was left with a man who was ambitious to a fault, and conniving, a man who hung on each and every word that passed her mother's lips like he would die without them. DG often thought that they were a couple, more than her parents were. He attended the Queen more like a lover than an employer or a friend.

And Cain...

DG hadn't seen Wyatt Cain, restored Tin Man, for ten years. He'd left to find his son almost immediately after the battle and she hadn't seen hide nor hair since. She'd heard, through Ambrose and, before he passed on, Tutor, that Jeb and Wyatt Cain were doing well, that they'd moved to Central City, that they'd both become Tin Men and were working to restore the city to what it should be... But every time she had an appearance there, he was no where to be found. No address to visit, no phone to call. He was alive, she knew he was, because she would have known immediately if it were otherwise. But nothing. Not so much as a goodbye.

She'd cried at first, once Glitch and Raw were gone. Her heart had ached so for her friends, men that she considered family more than those related to her by blood, and as she lay, night after night in her bedroom, she longed for the adventures they'd had, their time on the road, as dirty as they were.

Those dreams were long dead, stomped out of existence by her station and her training.

She sat perfectly still as her personal maids dressed her in what she privately referred to as 'the fancy get up', a long, emerald green gown that showed just the right amount of cleavage and absolutely no leg. The stiff white lace at the collar was torture, and she hated it with a passion... But as the official representative of the royal family, reading a speech prepared by the queen herself, DG just did as she was told. She let herself be pushed and prodded and strapped into the gown, let the maids first curl her hair and then pile it high on her head. She allowed the simple silver tiara sparkling with diamonds and emeralds and rubies to be nestled atop it and, as she looked at her reflection in the mirror, even she had to approve. She looked good... for a corpse.

Even DG could see that, under the powder and rouge and garish red lipstick, the fire that had once burned bright in her cornflower eyes was gone. Not even a few embers remained and, oddly, she couldn't gather up enough energy to be more than mildly interested in that fact. This was her world, her place, and nothing she did or said would change that.

Ten years in captivity is a long time for someone who longs to be free. After that long, even the strongest spirits will break.

That afternoon, at the conclusion of her speech about a New Era of grandeur for the O.Z. and Central City, with the applause of the crowd still roaring in her ears, DG let herself be escorted off the dais with a firm, almost too firm, grip. She was spending the night in the City, in a large suite at the top of the tallest hotel in the city, a place where access could be easily and she could be protected. In the morning, she'd attend to a few other pieces of business for her mother and then, the morning after that, she'd go home. DG enjoyed these little outings but, truthfully, she'd rather be in her own apartments in the palace, with her books and her dogs and the memories of what she'd once been. Being in the publics eye like this was painful, because it threw into sharp relief everything that she didn't have and everything that she was not.

The ride to the hotel was short, and DG sat patiently in the car while her security team, comfortably padded with Tin Men, did a sweep of the lobby, the halls and anywhere else someone with nefarious plans may be hiding. After ten minutes, her security chief was given the all-clear and DG was escorted at a brisk pace through the building to her rooms, where she could rest and relax and get the hell out of the clown suit she was wearing.

As she was descending a small flight of steps, heading to the elevator bank, DG stumbled and careened into a Tin Man standing at attention. She didn't expect to recognize the face when she looked back up.

"I'm so sorry," she said as the man helped to right her, her security chief hovering over her as well. "I didn't hurt you did I..." Her mouth gaped open as his cerulean eyes came into focus, the sun-kissed skin and the white-blond hair.

"No, princess, you didn't," Wyatt Cain said quietly, a faint flush filling his cheeks.

Part of DG was happy to see him, finally, after all this time. Another part of her was angry, because he'd dared show his face after a decade of nothing. Another part still just wanted to cry.

In the end, she got to do none of the above as she was whisked away to her room, glancing over her shoulder all the while.


	2. Chapter 2

As she was unpacked from her costume, DG had a lot of time to think. She sat and stared into the reflection of her own blank eyes, as if the answers she was looking for lay there. When her maids were done, and her long hair laid in curled ringlets down her back, her face free from make up that looked good on camera but not so much in person, and her goofy, ruffled state dress was exchanged for a comfortable, freely flowing day gown, she called one of the guards outside her door to her.

"There is a Tin Man downstairs, or was thirty minutes ago, named Wyatt Cain. Inform your captain I want him brought here immediately."

"Is there something wrong, your highness?"

DG gave the man a tight smile. "No, nothings wrong. I just want a word with him. A i private /i word, so once he's here, we're not to be disturbed. Understood?"

"Of course, your highness."

DG was resting on the chaise in the sitting room, looking out the windows to the city below her, when a knock sounded on the door. "Your Highness," her chief said, opening the door. "Officer Cain, as you've requested."

She rose, nodding, hands clasped before her as Wyatt entered the room, his hat in his hands. "Thank you, James. That will be all."

DG let her eyes wander over Cain's form, noting the changes as she crossed the room. He was a little leaner in the face and the waist, as if he'd spent time rebuilding muscles that had gone soft in his long imprisonment, and his hairline had begun to retreat slightly. The eyes, though, that's where she noted the biggest change. Gone was the bright fire of vengeance and the slow burn of concern. Only confusion was left and, maybe, a hint of what might have been fear. A wall went up before she got the chance to investigate it further. "Officer Cain."

"My lady," Wyatt said, bowing his head respectfully. "Is there something I can do for you?"

The indifference in his words made DG's eyes narrow. She slowly circled him, like a tigress stalking her prey. "Yes, Officer, there is," she said slowly. "I find myself confused this afternoon."

"Confused?" Cain asked, watching her walk, looking wary. "How so, Your Highness?"

"Yes, confused," DG said, closing in on him. "Let me tell you a story, officer, of a young girl who was thrown, quite literally, into a strange, new world that she was immediately expected to save. She found a man while she was new to this world and he helped her perform her mission, more than anyone would ever know. She considered this man a friend, closer than a friend even. She considered him family-"

"DG, please," Cain said,. his voice sounding strained. "Please just let me ex-"

"Let you what?" DG asked, her eyes flashing alive for the first time in years. "Let you explain why you up and abandoned me? Why you didn't even say goodbye?"

"DG, that's not how it happened," Cain said, his rigid posture relaxing a bit. "And if you'll just calm down and let me-"

"No, Cain, I will not calm down and let you smooth this over," she said, voice low and deadly calm. "You were my friend. More than that, you were like an annoying older brother than doesn't let you have any fun, but does it because he loves you and wants you to be safe. I went to bed one night and you were there..." Her eyes began to betray her, the tough facade she'd been holding before her cracking and breaking away. "...And when I woke up the next morning, you were gone. Before long, Raw was gone too and Glitch died so Ambrose, the slimy bastard, could live. And I was all alone."

She sniffed, turning away to blink the tears that had begun to form in the corners of her eyes away before he could note them. "So tell me, Officer Cain. If that's not how it happened, then how did it?"

Cain sagged slightly and, at that moment, he looked as if the weight of the worlds, all of them, were on his shoulders. He moved to one of the small tables that dotted the room, taking a seat on a gilded chair. "DG... I have no excuse for what happened, save one." He paused and took a deep breath. "I screwed up."

DG's eyes narrowed again as she moved to join him, watching his face carefully as she took the seat next to him. "Okay, you're definitely going to have to elaborate on that one."

Cain sighed again, tossing his hat onto the table between them. "I... It was my job to protect you. As soon as we went and saw the Mystic Man, he made me promise not to leave your side and, Deej, I swear to you, I did the best that I could." He paused, bowing his head to avoid her gaze, looking as if the words were painful to speak. DG couldn't help the hand that snaked out across to him, not quite touching his arm but close. "Once... Once everything was done, and you defeated the witch, I was superfluous. You know I was, too. My job was done, so I left for a place where I could be useful. I didn't say goodbye, because I thought it would be less painful all around."

Slowly, DG pulled her hand back away from him, her mouth dropping open slightly in shock. "That is the biggest piece of horse shit I've ever heard in my life. Are you going to tell me the truth now, or are you gunning to be known as a liar too?"

Wyatt really looked in pain then. "DG," he begged. "Please. I didn't leave like that by choice and contact between us has been forbidden. I got your letters, every one of them, and I would have written back if I could."

DG's eyes flared open, shock, indignation and anger, powerful emotions, raging to life. "Forbidden? By who? For what reason?"

Cain looked sad as he caught her gaze, gently taking one of her hands in his. "By your mother. Because I was a foolish old man beginning to feel things I had no right to feel." He squeezed the hand in his then, almost begging her to leave well enough alone.

That was something she'd never been able to do.

Her eyes steeled over. "My mother forbade you to contact me? Explain, please."

Cain nearly visibly winced. "Yes. I... DG, let me explain everything." He took a moment to begin, eyes downcast. "When... When we met, when you saved me from the suit and when we found my late wife's grave, I was... I was broken. And I was hurting." He looked up and DG could see the sincerity. "But there you were. You were so... alive. And nothing and no one could keep you down. No matter what happened, you kept going and kept trying. I admired that about you. The more time we spent together, the more and more that admiration grew."

He released her hand and stood, pacing nervously around the room. The long tails of his duster flapped around his legs. "Admiration grew into a kind of... well, love is the only word I can think of. Like you were my own daughter, or a sister... Someone close. And from there..." Another frustrated sigh. "It was inappropriate and foolish for me to think of you as anything more than that, for however brief a time it may have been."

DG wasn't sure what to think about that, or how to react. She was sure she should be disgusted... He was, after all, old enough to be her father. Yet, curiously, she wasn't disgusted or angered by the revelation, and only mildly surprised.

"Wyatt," she said softly, the ire that had been ripe in her voice a few minutes ago gone, leaving nothing but tenderness and understanding. "Come. Please sit down. You and I have a lot to talk about because I want to know everything. I promise I won't judge you, or think differently of you, or any of that... But I need to know how things went down. So I can fix it."

"Fix it?" Cain barked a short laugh, shaking his head. "There's no fixing this, Deej. I have my orders, and they are to stay away from you. The only reason I was allowed here today was because the guard detail was short-staffed."

DG just smiled, the sweetness it contained belying the harsh glint that came from her eyes. "Oh, no. This is getting fixed, Wyatt, and it's getting fixed today. Ten years is a long time and I'm no longer a child. I get exactly what I want, when I want it. Just you wait and see."


	3. Chapter 3

_**Author's note: Sorry for the delay in this chapter. Family issues kept me from finishing it in a timely manner. **_

Conversations are funny things. They're almost like an entity unto themselves. Sometimes they flow effortlessly, the topics switching willie nillie with the participants fancy. Sometimes they die almost before they get started. But conversations amongst friends seem to be the most precious, entertaining, and endearing of all, especially when there was ten years of catching up to do.

When DG concluded her business in the city and returned to the Royal Palace, she wore a self-satisfied grin, like the proverbial cat that ate the canary, and she headed immediately to her mother's apartment. It was early yet, not even midday, and she knew that the queen would still be there, possibly taking her morning meal.

DG knocked lightly and entered when bidden, smiling for her mother. "Good morning, Mother dear."

"Back so soon, my angel?" Lavender asked her youngest, a smile spreading from ear to ear. "I didn't expect you until tomorrow at the earliest."

"I managed to squeeze things in," DG said. She moved to the small table her mother was sitting at and plucked a pure white, long haired cat from the seat, petting it absently as she sat. "The Mayor is going to be asking for some additional funding for city beautification projects. He already tried to wine and dine the money out of me."

"Did he really?" Lavender laughed. "Lecherous old man. I don't imagine that went over very well."

"No, it didn't at all." DG paused for a moment, watching her mother carefully. "I ran into an old friend when I was in the city."

"Oh?" Lavender asked, taking a bite of sausage. "And who's that dearest?"

"Wyatt Cain."

Lavender stilled, her spine stiffening. DG was certain that, had her mother possessed fur, it would be bristling just then. "Officer Cain? Really, that's wonderful darling." DG could hear the forced levity in her mother's voice. Lavender set her fork down and wiped her fingers clean on the linen napkin sitting in her lap.

"Yes, it was good seeing him again." DG paused, watching the older woman carefully while she buttered a piece of toast. "I do have a question for you though."

Lavender sighed heavily, tossing her napkin onto her plate. "Angel, please just hear me ou-"

DG held her hand up, blue eyes flashing. "Hear you out? Mother, what you did was completely ridiculous and very assumptive. Banishing him for what? A couple of little looks that you thought were unsavory? A touch that you felt lingered a little too long?"

Lavender's gaze narrowed at her daughter and DG could tell the woman was already completely exasperated. She had a habit of doing that to her mother. "Dorothy, listen to me. I was only trying to protect you. He was being far too familiar with you, considering your age and station."

"Familiar or not, Mother, Wyatt Cain was my friend and nothing more." DG stood, hands on her hips stubbornly. "I know that things were difficult back then and they aren't much better now, so I can understand wanting to protect the child that you hadn't seen in over a decade... But I'm not a child, Mother. And I wasn't one then, either. So, frankly, I'm insulted that you would trust me with saving the entire O.Z., but you felt that I couldn't handle my own life."

"DG, that's not it at all!"

"Oh? Well, I really don't care anymore, Mother. And I am putting my foot down. Wyatt Cain is my friend and I intend to reconnect with my friend. And if you dare to try to forbid ME from doing just that, I will go back to the Other Side and you will never see me again."

Lavender gasped, looking like DG had slapped her or kicked her in the stomach. "Angel, please don't say that..."

"Why not? Why shouldn't I speak the truth?" DG looked at her mother a moment and then sighed, leaning down to press a kiss to Lavender's cheek. "We'll talk later, alright? I'm still tired from the trip and I want to see Chauncey. Has he been any trouble?"

"No, your dog is fine," Lavender said, still looking like she'd been struck. "Go and rest. We'll discuss this later."

DG sighed, slipping out of the room without another word to her mother, mind whirring to determine her next move.


	4. Chapter 4

_Your presence is humbly requested for a meeting with the Princess Dorothy Gayle, at one p.m. on Thursday. _

_This is an informal meeting, so uniform dress is not required. Please be prompt, as the Princess has a very busy schedule._

Wyatt rubbed his eyes as he stood in the middle of his sparse, one room apartment in the more unsavory part of the city, the letter he'd received by royal courier dangling from one hand. A meeting with the princess in the Palace? That didn't seem like the smartest idea to him, not very smart at all. Especially with the Queen...

No. No, no. DG had asked him to go, so he'd go and just trust that she had the details like that worked out.

"She's a smart kid-" Internally, he corrected himself. _Woman _ . There was nothing child-like left to the woman he'd seen the other day. "She'll have covered all her bases. I know she will have."

He let the letter fall to the bed and undressed for a shower. He smelled like an open sewer.

Three days later, he took a hired car to the Palace, his stomach in knots and his heart beating a mile a minute. He had tried his level best to be calm and collected, the way she'd been the other day, but it was hard... Ten years on the outside had changed him more than ten years in the suit had. The quiet confidence that had been pervasive when he was a younger man was a lot more subdued and a hint of uncertainty colored his actions and, if he was truthful, his thoughts. When he'd been unceremoniously tossed out of the Palace, so soon after losing his Adora (again) and finding a new family to belong to, it was like the rug had been pulled out from under him. Well, describing their little rag-tag group as a family was a stretch. It was more like a couple with a goofy neighbor and a couple of pets, but it was the bond that counted with them, not the titles they were or were not bestowed with.

He was met with a footman and led to one of the royal family's suites. He stood beside the expansive, elaborately carved fireplace and waited... For whom, he didn't know, but he was pretty damned sure it wasn't DG. Oh, DG's name had been on the letter, but this apartment... It didn't look like her, it didn't feel like her... and the perfume that was hanging in the air, it certainly didn't smell like her, no matter how nice it was. DG smelled like... wildflowers in a field right after a rain storm. Crisp, clean, faintly musky but still feminine. That was his DG.

Wyatt's eyes widened when he took a moment to listen to his own thoughts, surprised at how he was thinking about DG already. His DG? Who was he kidding? She wasn't his anything and she never had been.

A door opened and closed behind him and he turned to face whoever had entered the room. He was only mildly surprised when he was greeted with a harsh glare shot from otherwise lovely lavender eyes.

"Sit down, Mr. Cain," the Queen commanded, moving quickly to one of the room's bureaus. Wyatt did as he was commanded (it was most definitely a command, not a request) and took a seat on a chair.

Lavender pulled a cut crystal decanter from the bureau along with a low ball glass, pouring herself a drink. It was gone in a second and she poured another. "Mister Cain... In our last meeting, was I in any way unclear about my wishes?"

"I'm sorry, your majesty?" Cain asked, jaw dropping open slightly with surprise. "I'm afraid I don't understa-"

"I believe, Mr. Cain, that I told you in no uncertain terms to stay away from my daughter." Lavender's eyes flashed as she pulled another glass from her bureau and splashed some of the amber liquid from the decanter into it. She turned and advanced on Wyatt, handing him the glass. "DG told me she'd seen you in the city. Did you contact her or was it the other way around?" The Queen sat gracefully in another chair and Wyatt could feel her eyes boring into him.

"It was an accident, your Majesty," Wyatt said carefully, taking a drink of the brandy she'd poured him. "The department was short people for her detail. She spotted me in the lobby of the hotel she was staying at." He sighed, shoulders slumping slightly. "I... I didn't have the heart to refuse her meeting, your Majesty."

Lavender sniffed slightly, her face a careful mask if aloof interest. He could tell the gears were turning inside that pretty head, though, and that frightened him a little. Well... maybe it frightened him a lot. She was the reigning monarch and she could have him completely erased with a single word. His life wasn't much and hadn't been much for a while now, but he liked the fact that he was there to live it. "She is quite compelling when she wants to be," Lavender said after a long pause, sipping at her drink again. "I have decided to rescind my previous decision, Mr. Cain, if only so that I may keep my daughter safely within the Zone. She is... stubborn to a fault, far too head-strong, and has said she'd return to the Other Side if I attempted to block any relations between you and she."

Wyatt felt his cheeks heat with a blush and he cursed himself for it. The Queen continued.

"However, Mr. Cain, I have a warning for you. I probably don't need to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway... When she is with you, or anywhere in you vicinity, you had better make sure she is safe. From outside threats as well as from you. If you hurt my baby girl, I'll break more than your heart."

Wyatt was left gaping as Lavender drained her glass and left it on the small table situated between their chairs. She rose just as gracefully as she's sat down, straightening her gown and her hair. "Now. She's waiting for you with a proposition, I believe. My footman will escort you to her rooms." With a sweep of her gown, the Queen of the Outer Zone turned and headed out the way she'd entered, moving on to other business.


	5. Chapter 5

_Author's Note: Hi Everyone! So sorry about the VERY LONG gap between the last chapter and this one. Life got busy and yadda yadda insert excuse here. But, the muse has returned and here's the next chapter. It's a short one, but hey... Necessary! CC is love and thanks for bearing with me._

It had been nearly a week since DG reconnected with a certain Mister Wyatt Cain and the staff had noticed. DG had spent the last decade slowly becoming colder than the ice that surrounded the royal family's Northern Palace, their winter home, so when she came back from Central City _glowing._.. Well, it was sure to be noticed. At first, it had just been her personal maid, Penelope, who commented on it, remarking on how the Princess looked so much _lighter_ and _younger_. DG had laughed it off with a blush, joking with her long-time maid and close friend that maybe she'd finally found **Someone Interesting**, as they usually referred to men (younger or older, it didn't matter) who caught their eye. But Penny had mentioned it to her brother, who also worked in the Palace as a gardener, who passed it along to his mistress, who told her best friend and so on and do forth, the tale growing with each retelling, as rumors so often do.

Ambrose, though, was Displeased when he heard the gossip, that the Princess Dorothy was in love with an old Tin Man and they'd had a secret tryst and she was expecting his child. He knew that, most of it at least, was complete bull. He knew Princess Dorothy and had been keeping tabs on Wyatt Cain for years... Neither of them were likely to jump into bed so quickly. Now, though, as he stood concealed in the shadow of a potted fern, watching as Cain was escorted to the Princess's apartment, he was forced to second guess himself on that count and he hated himself for it, and Wyatt Cain, his Displeasure growing with each click of the man's heels against the highly polished granite of the floor.

Ambrose was not the man he'd been before Azkadellia's coup, before half of his brain had been stolen and locked away for nearly two decades. That man, the first man Ambrose had been, was as dead as the imbecile Glitch, perhaps even more so. Now, Ambrose was not a man used to losing. Ambrose would do _anything_ to come out ahead of every thing and everyone else. He'd carefully maneuvered and manipulated the people and events around him until he'd once again put himself at the Queen's right hand. Nothing and no one was going to take that from him. Not this time.

Ambrose's eyes narrowed as he watched Wyatt Cain. He was going to be keeping a close eye on that man.


	6. Chapter 6

DG was catching up on the recent political events in the Zone. It was a surprising amount, really, for such a small area. Well... Small, when compared to the Other Side. Things were... as tense as they'd been for the last few years. Rioting in the Land of the Unwanted. Some left over Long Coats who had escaped from the Tin Men. Again. That happened quite a bit, she noticed, and all from the same division in Central City. That was... odd. Very odd. Her brows pulled together as she considered this new information. Something had to be done about this... Maybe she could speak to James...

Just then, her train of thought was interrupted by a sharp rap to her door. "Enter," she called out, folding up her paper, straightening her clothes as she stood. She wasn't wearing a dress today, which, after ten years of of daily corseting and primping and prodding, was a welcome change. She was dressed simply, comfortably, much in the way she'd dressed on the Other Side, in a pair of "swishy" pants and a loose blouse. No tee shirts, not any more. The one she'd come over with was long since worn out and turned to scraps. Chauncey, her Mastiff, snoozed comfortably on a pad before one of the room's many floor to ceiling windows, basking in the beams of sunlight and drooling on the floor.

Cain entered cautiously, the attendant who'd escorted him from the Queen's rooms bowing out and shutting the door behind him with an oddly ominous sounding click. "You're late," DG said with a chuckle, a spark of life shining in her eyes. "You startin' to slip in your old age?"

Immediately, Cain relaxed. The tension he'd been holding in his shoulders since the Queen had spoken to him started to ease. He hadn't even been aware that he'd been holding it. "I was speaking to your mother, actually, Princess."

DG perked a brow, more than a little cynical. "What on Earth were the two of you speaking about?"

"Well, not so much speaking together as being spoken to," Cain clarified, a little sheepishly. It was terrible being an adult and being chastised like you were a child. That was pretty much an apt description of the meeting.

"I can imagine." DG sat back down, motioning for Cain to join her. "Hopefully, Mother wasn't too terrible. She means well, I think... She's just... protective."

"I don't blame her," Cain said, sitting opposite the Princess, his hat in his hands. "She missed most of your childhood, like I missed Jeb's. Overcompensating is a natural reaction to something like that." He paused for a second, watching DG carefully. "Your mother said you had some kind of proposition for me..."

DG caught the wary look he was giving her, as if she was likely to jump him or something. She just laughed, shaking her head. "It's nothing nefarious, I promise. James, my security chief, is getting married next month and he plans on taking an extensive honeymoon. And, really, he deserves it. He puts up with me all the time."

"Oh, I see," Cain said, nodding. "Well, if you'll let me make a suggestion... Jeb is fantastic at personal security, especially if you need someone to pad your guards until James comes back. I know his wife and kids would be happier. It seems a safer position than the one he has now, though his division would be hurtin' until he came back."

"I'll make sure James has his name," DG said, nodding. "But... I was thinking more like... you."

"Me?" Cain's brows shot up. His expression of surprise was comical, but it quickly dissolved into something more cautious and closed off. "I don't know, Princess."

"What don't you know about?" DG said, prepared to counter any and every argument he could come up with. "Is it the experience thing? The closeness thing? No problem. You're beyond qualified for the job, you'll be working with a highly trained and dedicated team, and it's pretty much the easiest job in the Zone."

"That's not it," Cain sighed, running his hand through his hair. "Deej..."

"Listen, Wyatt," DG said softly, trying to catch his eye, though he refused to look at her directly. "What happened happened. And what's going to happen is going to happen. You're my friend... And I trust you with my life just as much as I trust James and James knows that. I'm not going to try to wheedle you into accepting the position... But I hope you will."

Cain sat there, thinking it over. To say that he was unhappy at the turn his life had taken was an understatement. He was miserable, in fact, and had been ever since he'd been all but banished by the queen. Still... He looked up then, catching DG's eyes. "All right," he said quietly. "I'll do it, but you have to take Jeb on too. I wasn't lying when I said his wife and kids would be happier if he was in a safer place. "

"Done." DG beamed, her eyes sparkling brightly at getting her way. She knew he'd give in, of course, eventually. "I'll talk to James and we'll get it all squared away."

Cain sighed, giving her a half-hearted chuckle. "You are going to be the death of me, kiddo."

DG winked, still grinning broadly. "Yeah, probably. But life is more fun that way."


End file.
